THERE'S one defeat for Celtic that still gives me the hump nine years after it happened.

It was the time we lost the title at Motherwell after going a goal up in the first half on the final day of the season.

You never really get over something as devastating as that, especially when you realise how close the team was to giving Martin O’Neill another championship as a going away present.

He was stepping down as manager to be replaced by Gordon Strachan.

And when a game is in your hands but is allowed to slip through them on an occasion like that you can’t help but think of what might have been.

The players who were part of Celtic’s Scottish Cup defeat to Aberdeen last week will know what I’m talking about.

The reaction to that loss has been as fiery as you might expect given the final is at Celtic Park in May and Neil Lennon’s team won’t be there.

I have every sympathy for the manager and his players because sometimes human nature kicks in and you become the victims of your own success.

Football can have psychological elements attached to results you don’t expect. Celtic’s loss to Derek McInnes’s side wasn’t down to a lack of effort. There was no rhyme or reason to it.

A team that had justifiably been praised for churning out results in the league week after week simply weren’t at the races when it came to the Cup.

These things happen. And what about a little credit for Aberdeen who thoroughly deserved to win.

I said in last week’s column I had a gut feeling Aberdeen could push Celtic all the way, particularly as the home side were so unused to coming back from adversity.

I think I got that one spot on.

But it was a poor result for Celtic to suffer at home. There are no two ways about that.

It’s part of life that you sometimes underperform and at times I was part of a good Celtic team with some great players who had poor performances and results.

We also had a manager who was able to spend big money on players.

Neil, meanwhile, has had the smallest budget of recent times at Celtic Park and has had to sell off his best players, Victor Wanyama and Gary Hooper.

That comment is no less true just because it’s frequently made in the manager’s defence.

The best players have gone and their places have been taken by others who represent a gamble. But let’s examine the criticism that has come Neil’s way point by argumentative point.

Two cup defeats at home to Morton and Aberdeen have put paid to the chance of winning a Treble for a second successive season.

But should Celtic be automatically tipped for a Treble just because Rangers are not in the same league as them?

I wouldn’t dismiss that argument out of hand but I would point to the fact that history shows only two Celtic managers, Jock Stein and Martin, have been able to claim the distinction of a domestic clean sweep. That’s how hard it is.

Has the manager lost focus and is his mind elsewhere? Of course not.

Should Georgios Samaras have played against Aberdeen when his future at Celtic Park is unresolved as his contract nears its expiry date?

Neil wanted to win the Scottish Cup so he picked his strongest team and Samaras was in it. It is ridiculous to suggest Neil would pick a team for such a vital tie that wasn’t his strongest available.

Kris Commons? Didn’t get on the ball enough for once.

Leigh Griffiths? If the manager had wanted to start the game with him in the team, that’s what he would have done.

I go back to that game at Motherwell when Scott McDonald scored twice and we fell at the final hurdle in the title race.

I’d scored the opening goal and we missed a glorious chance to go two up when Craig Bellamy was put through one on one with their keeper.

The bottom line was we didn’t perform as well as we should have and that’s why it still rankles with me.

But I could also name you dozens of matches Celtic won during my time there after not having played well.

What happens is you lose a Scottish Cup tie at home, and with a goal of a start, and the aftermath is magnified by 100 per cent. There simply wouldn’t have been the same fall-out if last Saturday’s result had been in a league match.

I expect there will now be a siege mentality in the Celtic dressing room when they play St Johnstone tomorrow.

This is the players’ chance to stick two fingers up to everyone who has had a go at them since last weekend. They have to use the defeat by Aberdeen as their main source of motivation.

Neil’s team will want to start quickly and show how good they are.

What they don’t need is another lame performance. It’s time to show character.

It’s good that the players have an immediate chance to atone for what happened against Aberdeen.

In 2005, we had another shot at glory the following weekend when we faced Dundee United in the Scottish Cup Final. We won the game 1-0 but, of course, that couldn’t erase the memory of what had happened at Motherwell.

And it’s not doing my peace of mind much good to relive the experience all over again in this column, thank you very much.